Category Archives: Areas of Interest

2023 retail industry outlook (Deloitte)

Embrace the changing consumer to bolster growth in inflationary times Amid market volatility, labor pressures, and supply chain constraints, how can retailers sustain the resiliency of the last few years to better navigate the current headwinds? Our 2023 industry outlook explores retail trends to help your company elevate its business strategy beyond traditional cost-cutting. Learn […]
Read More »

The four key ways disinformation is spread online (WEF)

Social media has ushered in an era of unprecedented connectivity. Yet it has also allowed disinformation and so-called fake news campaigns to proliferate and flourish. Disinformation—which includes false and out-of-context information spread with the intent to deceive or mislead—is largely propagated by people looking to distort public opinion and advance particular agendas. Key is how […]
Read More »

Grocery retailers and the food market: Trends and future prospects (Forbes)

Ecommerce at the core The COVID-19 pandemic introduced lockdown policies that forced several grocery retailers to shift to e-commerce and offer online shopping and delivery services. McKinsey reported that 20- 30% of grocery store businesses turned to e-commerce at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Although physical stores have resumed operations, online shopping is still a […]
Read More »

New GIBS article: Home country (in)stability and the locational portfolio construction of emerging market multinational enterprise by Helena Bernard and John Luiz

Emerging markets often experience instability due to rapid changes to the institutional environment, social changes like rapid urbanization, or even unrest. We argue that emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) manage such instability by constructing and changing locational portfolios, and qualitatively analyze six cases in South Africa over a period that included the entrenchment of Apartheid, increasing […]
Read More »

Huawei South Africa to invest $5.8-million in SMEs as part of new cloud plans (ITNA)

Huawei South Africa has announced that its third data centre availability zone is set to go live three years ahead of schedule, as well as its $5.8-million (R100-million) Cloud Spark programme, which is set to provide support to more than 1000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over the next three years. Both of these announcements […]
Read More »

South Africa’s Payfast launches new initiative to upskill aspiring business owners.(ITNA)

A New 12-Week Development Programme Three cohorts of 10 entrepreneurs each, will take part in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, and Elardus Park, Pretoria, as well as via virtual classes. By the time participants graduate in August, each team will have created their own ‘Recipe Book’ on the subject of online shops.This will be developed during weekly […]
Read More »

Energy business trends start blowing in Africa’s favor (CGTN)

For the moment, Africa stands poised for stronger economic growth, despite the headwinds. The European Union (EU) member states and United Kingdom (UK) have urgency to find energy resources from other countries, while they transition away from Russian energy imports after Russian President Vladimir Putin had launched the ‘Special Military Operation’ in Ukraine starting on […]
Read More »

Recognizing and responding to microaggressions at work (HBR)

Building inclusive workplaces requires candid, authentic conversations on tough subjects, like sexism, homophobia, and racism — and it’s natural to worry that we may commit microaggressions in these kinds of conversations by saying the wrong thing. The more awareness we have about how microaggressions show up, the more we can work toward decreasing them in […]
Read More »

Some good news for businesses in South Africa (BT)

New data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) shows that the total number of liquidations in April decreased by 12.7% compared to a year ago. Voluntary liquidations decreased by 29 cases, while compulsory liquidations increased by nine cases, it said. Liquidation refers to the winding-up of the affairs of a company or close corporation when […]
Read More »

How to help smallholder farmers fight climate change (DM)

In response to these and other challenges that farmers said they face, the University of KwaZulu-Natal designed a training programme on climate-smart agriculture. The first method that farmers learned and practised was the use of the A-frame to mark and plant, following horizontal or contour lines, and the digging of trenches to keep water underground […]
Read More »